malcolm-webb

Director Maury Dexter's films are, it seems, generally not much appreciated, but personally I found just about every one, with the exception of Young Guns of Texas, to be thoroughly engaging little support features that were often a cut well above the main attraction. House of the Damned came about mid-way through his early sixties output,and was beautifully lit and photographed in the particularly pleasing combination of black and white with the added benefit of CinemaScope. This is no film for horror fans. It is an atmospheric drama with a sad,low-key ending. Solid cast with popular leading man of the times Ron Foster, and Merry Anders, always a joy to watch, and especially good in Dexter's Police Nurse. House of the Damned rated X for over 16's only, topped the bill at the Rialto Theatre Coventry Street in London's west-end. A limited release in the capital's suburbs saw it supporting another Fox entry Witchcraft. Dexter's output was unpretentious but consistently entertaining, and it would be nice if the Fox Archive people were to release some, if not all of his films in their correct theatrical release ratio. Maury Dexter's contribution to the illustrious history of 20th Century-Fox may be small but it is certainly worthy of recognition.

Some of the best British Music Hall ( Vaudeville ) acts get a chance to perform in this nostalgic trip down memory lane. The Sherman Fisher girls dance to a lively tune. Pat Hyde, radio's schoolgirl sweetheart and talented accordionist, treats us to a jolly version of A Shanty in Old Shanty Town, and Pat O'Brien ( not the Hollywood actor ) is the singer who delights us with a few bars of That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine, guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye. Worth a mention is The Act Superb, specialists in tableaux vivants. The motionless representations by living persons in costume is all the more remarkable because this act has, in addition to the two humans, two very well trained dogs and a horse no less, all made up in white powder so as to appear like porcelain statues in various poses, each lasting 20 seconds. Sadly, not all the turns are at their best. The Mother Riley bit of business is drawn out and only mildly amusing. Here Robb Wilton does his perplexed policeman, but can be much funnier as the frustrated fireman. Nevertheless the film has a quaint charm and is an excellent insight into what was popular entertainment for the working class folk at their local Empire theatre before the days of television.

It is hard not to like this amusing little comedy chiller. Lugosi is in great form, given his age and health problems. There are some humorous exchanges of dialogue, in particular when Bela is explaining the finer points of his evolution experimentation to the Martin and Lewis wannabees Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. The boys clown around a bit with very weak material, their jokes really only likely to amuse any kids in the audience. Ramona is one very talented chimpanzee and turns in a good performance larking about with Petrillo. I saw this film on the lower half of a double feature in a London suburban flea-pit around 1959. Released over here by New Realm Pictures Ltd. and re-titled " Monster meets the Gorilla ". The film benefits from the casting of the very pretty actress Charlita, and this was probably her finest hour, being that she is on screen in most of the scenes, where she is given plenty of dialogue and an opportunity to display her natural charms. Her other film credits were mostly fleeting cameos, or dance interludes. She often played waitresses, and she appeared in a few TV series entries.